The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-07-22
THE WITCH'S HEAD.
By II. RIDER UAGGARD.
CHAPTER XXI.
MIR. PLowDEN GOES A wooINu.


wooing, and he acted up to his convictions.
Possessing no moro delicacy of feeling than a
| bull elephant, and as much consideration for
the lady as the elephant has for the lily it tram
pies under foot, he, fguratively speaking,
charged at Eva every time he saw her He laid
wait for her round corners and asked her to
marry him; he dropped in on her at odd hours,
and Insisted upon her marrying him II was
| quite useless for her to say mo, no, no." or to
appeal to his better feelings or compassion, for
he had none He simply would not listen to
her; but encouraged thereto by the moral
support which he received from Florence, he
crushed the poor girl with his amorous elo-
| quence.
| IL was merry chase that Florence sat and
watched with dark smile on her scornful
| lip! In vain did the poor white doe dash
along at her best speed, the great black hound
was ever at her flank, and each time she
turned came bounding ut her throat. This
idea of chase, and hound, and doe, took
such strong possession of Florences satur-
nine imagination that she actually made a
drawing of it, for she was clever artist,
throwing by few strokes Of her pencil a
perfect likeness of Mr. Plowden into the
fierce features of the hound. The doe she
drew with Eva's dark eyes, and when she had
done them there was such a world of agony
in their tortured gaze that she could not bear
to look at them, and tore her picture up
| One day Florence came in and found her
sister weeping.
"Well, Eva, what is it nowi" she asked,
contemptuouSy.
"Mr. Plowden," sobbed Eva.
"Oh, Mr.. Plowden againl Well, my dear,
If you will be so beautiful and encourage
men, you must take the consequences"
al never encouraged Mr. Plowden."
| will -
lieve that If you do not encourage him he
would not go on making love to you Gentle
men are not so fond of being snubbed"
"Mr. Plowden is not gentleman" ex-
claimed Eva.
"What makes you say thatf
Because gentleman would not persecute
ono as he does. He will not take No for an
answer, and to-day he kissed my hand. |
tried to get it away from him, but could
not oh, hate him"
81 tell you what it is, Eva; have no
patience with you and your fancies Mr..
| Plowden is very respectable man; he is a
clergyman, and well OF, altogether quite the
sort of man TO marry. Ah Enest-I am
sick of Ernest IT he wanted to marry you
he should not go shooting people and then
running off to south Africa Don't YOU lie
SO silly as to pin your faith to boy like that
He was all very well to firt with while he
was here; now he has made fool of himself
and gone, and there is an end of him."
"But, Florence, love Ernest think /
love him more dearly every day, and detest
Mr.. Plowden."
avery likely. I don't nsk you to love Mr.
Plowden; ask you to marry him. What
have love and marriage got to do with each
other should like to knowl If people We're
always to marry the people they loved things
would soon get into pretty mess. Look
here, Eva, as you know, l do not often OBJ
trude myself or my own interests, but I
think that have a right to he considered
little in this matter You have now got an
opportunity of making home for both of
us There is nothing against Mr. Plowden.
Why should you not marry him as well as
anybody esel Of course, if you choose to
sacrifice your own ultimate happiness and
the comfort of us both to silly whim, l can
not prevent you, you are your own mistress,
Only beg you to disabuse your mind of the
idea that you could not be happy with Mr..
Plowden, because you happen to fancy your
self in love with Ernest Why, in six
months you will have forgotten all about
| him.
"But don't want to forget about him."
II dare say not. That is your abominabe
egotism again. But whether you want to or
not you will. In year or two, when you
have your own interests and your chill
| dren"--
| "Florence, you may talk till midnight if you
| like, but once and for all, will not marry
Mr.. Plowden," and she swept out of the room
in her stately way.
| Florence laughed softly to herself as she
said after her:
"Ah, yes you will, Eva I shall be pinning
brides veil on to that proud head of yours
before you are six months older, my dear"
Florence was quite right; it was only
question of time and cunningly applied pres
sure. Eva yielded at last.
But there is no need for us to follow the
hateful story through its various stages. If
by chance any of the readers of this history
are curious about them, let them go and study
| from the life. Such cases exist around them,
and, so far us the victims are concerned, there
| is a painful monotony in the development of
their details and their conclusion.
And so it came to pass that one afternoon
| in the early summer, Florence, coming in
from walking, found Mr.. Plowden and her
sister together in the little drawing room.
The latter was very pale, and shrinking with
scared eyes and trembling limbs up against
the mantel piece, near which she was stand
ing The former, looking big and vulgar,
was standing over her and trying to take her
| hand.
Congratulate me, Miss Florence" he said.
Eva has promised TO be mine.'
"lias She" said Florence, coldly. "How
| glad you must bo that Mr.. Jones is out of the
| way!n
1t was not kind speech, but the fact was,
there were few people in the world for whom
| Florence had such complete contempt or
whom she regarded with such intense dislike
as she did Mr. Plowden. The mere presence
! Of the man irritated her beyond all bearing.
! He was an instrument suited to her purposes,
so she used him; but she could find it in her
heart 10 regret that the instrument was not
more pleasant to handle.
Mr. Plowden turned pale at her taunt, and
even in the midst Of her fear and misery Eva
smiled and thought to herself that it was
lucky for her hateful lover that somebody
else was "out of the way"
"Poor Eyaw you think TO yourself, my
reader; there was nothing poor about her;
! she was weak, she was coutemptible."
Poor Eval Yes, give her all your pity. but
| purge IL of your contempt. 1t requires that
woman should possess mind of unusual
robu1aess to stand out against circumstances
such a. hemmed her in, and this she did not
possess, Nature, which had showered physi-
cal gifts upon her with such lavish hand,
had not given her that most useful of all
|
made to yield, but this was her only fault.
For the rest she was pure as the mountain
snow, and with heart of gold. Herself in
capable Of deceit, it never occurred to her to
| imagine it in others She never suspected
that Florence could have motive in her ad-
| vocacy of Mr.. Plowden's cause. On the con-
| trary, she was possessed to the full with that
idea of duty and self sacrifice which in some
women amounts almost to madness. The no
tion SO cleverly started by Florence, that she
was bound to take this opportunity Of giving
her sister homo and the permanent protec.
tion of u brother-in.la law, had taken a firm
hold of her mind.
As for the cruel wrong and injustice which
her marriage with Mr. Plowden would work
to Ernest, it, strange as it may seem, never
occurred to her to consider the matter in that
light She knew what her own suferings
| We're and always must be; she knew that she
would rather die than be false to Ernest, but
somehow she never looked at the other side
| of the picture, never considered the matter
| from Ernest's point of view. After the true,
womanly fashion she was prepared to throw
! herself under her hideous Juggernaut called
duty, and let her inner life, the life of her
I heart be crushed out Of her; but she never
thought Of the twin life which was welded
with her own, and which must be crushed
too, How curious it is that when women
talk 50 much Of their duties they often think
l.. e l.f.-I.. It, u =.